Where Lovely Lavender Blooms
by TheTitaniumSerpent
Summary: SSHG. A bit sad and short one-shot after the war. TW's: domestic violence, abuse and character death, but NOT in SS/HG. Ron-bashing.


_English isn't my first language, I've no beta, I earn no money from this, and everything you recognise belongs to J. K. Rowling._

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PTSD, they called it, and herds and packs of healers ascended upon the survivors of the war. Minds needed to be healed just as much as bodies, and therapy became commonplace. They spoke, they cried, they laughed, reminisced and, slowly, they healed.

Harry Potter healed when he helped the former Headmaster Severus Snape in his recovery. With his friend Hermione standing firmly by his side he fought tooth and nail against the Ministry bureaucrats and the Wizengamot when they wanted to send Snape to Azkaban, and by the time Snape had awakened from coma caused by Nagini's venom, the stand Harry Potter and Hermione Granger took against the whole Wizengamot was stuff of legends. "How dare you," Harry had seethed, "how dare you try and judge the man who fought against Voldemort and spied on him for years while you hid under your beds and in your closets?". A speech written by Hermione, without a doubt, but delivered by the Chosen One. The Wizengamot could do nothing against the united forces of the Order of the Phoenix led by a determined Harry Potter, and so Snape was exonerated and given an Order of Merlin, first class, along with a hefty amount of Galleons.

Of course nothing could bring the dead Lily Evans back to Snape, and the usually sour man was devastated and seriously depressed for months for having survived, but reconciled with Harry Potter and Hermione Granger and was slowly taking steps to reconcile with other former students, such as Neville Longbottom, who was physically shoved in front of Snape by the unflappable Luna Lovegood: Longbottom swallowed thickly but offered his hand for Snape to shake and departed with his life and with a slightly straighter back, even if his expression was slightly bewildered for several hours.

Snape got over Lily when Harry, assisted by his beloved Ginny, began to go through his properties, including the mostly destroyed house at Godrick's Hollow, and accidentally found a stash of old diaries and photographs his mother had carefully hidden. He decided to share them with Snape, the last remaining link to his parents now that Remus, the last Marauder, was gone, but the wizards were in for a shock when the perfect and saintly Lily Evans turned out to be quite different than what Snape remembered and what Harry had been told. The diaries opened their eyes to a hidden aspect of Lily, who was just as ambitious and conniving as any Slytherin, and who had used Snape to boost her grades. She mocked 'Snivellus' Snape openly in her diaries over the years, detailing his poverty and behaviour, lack of social graces and lack of prospects. She'd set her eyes on a wealthy husband, and when the more handsome and wealthier Sirius Black turned out to be immune to her charms, she accepted James Potter instead. She'd learned to love her husband, of course, and her love for their son was undeniable in her every word, but Harry's eyes opened further, now seeing the human fallibility and flaws in both his parents.

Snape, of course, was devastated and furious, and isolated himself further from everyone, going as far as using his speech at a Ministry function by telling what exactly he thought of the Ministry and the Wizengamot in general. The Ministry lackeys were not amused, but Minister Shacklebolt himself boomed with laughter and wiped away tears of mirth. He knew Snape was alive and his usual acerbic self, and now he, too, could heal.

Some had died: the Weasleys mourned their Fred, Andromeda Tonks mourned her husband Ted, her daughter Nymphadora and her daughter's husband Remus as she raised their son Teddy, and families mourned sons and daughters, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers. Some recovered, although they'd lost so much: some were missing a limb, some with lack of eyesight, and in the case of Lavender Brown, with horrifying scars over her face, though she'd been spared the infection of lycanthropy. Bodies healed, though some never fully, and minds healed... though, again, some never completely would.

PTSD, they said, when Ronald Weasley began to drink. He'd kissed Hermione Granger in the heat of battle and they were expected to become engaged and marry. While Hermione and Harry had fought to free Snape, healed their bodies and minds, Ronald Weasley refused to see a healer, refused to admit there was anything wrong with his mind. If he did have nightmares, he suppressed them with alcohol, or accused his girlfriend Hermione of being a frigid bitch who wouldn't help him. When Hermione returned to Hogwarts to take her N.E.W.T.'s, Ronald opted to begin Auror training, but in a couple of months he was let go: the trainers could not work with the young man who would arrive late or not at all, usually nursing a hangover. He wouldn't take orders or follow commands, fought with his superiors and peers and was trigger-happy with his wand. His brother George gave him work in his shop, but he did odd shifts while drinking heavily.

When Hermione returned from Hogwarts with a record amount O's at N.E.W.T.'s under her belt, Ronald Weasley proposed publicly at a Ministry function, and Hermione, facing the expectant and hopeful faces of her comrades and friends, could not say no without causing a scene. Ron, quite drunk, snogged her in the middle of cheering witches and wizards, his slobber smelling of Firewhiskey and too much food. He was already developing a pouch on his belly.

In the next couple of weeks people saw the change in Hermione Granger: she was suddenly shy and seemed sad all the time, scurrying away from people. A photographer for the Daily Prophet caught her one day covering her bruises and siphoning blood from her robes, and the next day the citizens of Hogsmeade witnessed a fight where a drunk Ronald Weasley attempted to beat up Hermione Granger and got severely hexed for his troubles. Three Aurors arrived on scene, and Hermione Granger gave testimony on how Ronald's behaviour, fuelled by the feelings of inadequacy, had become possessive, jealous and finally violent, until even the loyal and forgiving Hermione had given up on their relationship. Ronald Weasley was spared the worst and served two weeks in Azkaban, on account of his heroic deeds during the war. He was issued with an order of restraint, forbidden from coming anywhere near Hermione Granger.

Hermione, who'd gladly returned her ring and regained her freedom, launched her career, and one day came across Snape, who'd began brewing privately by owl order. Snape, before he knew it, had promised to brew a salve for Hermione's scars received at the hands of the late Bellatrix LeStrange. The two had lunch together that day, united first by their mutual hatred of Bellatrix, and found they had quite a lot in common. The lunch was soon followed by tea, followed by a careful and tentative invitation to have dinner, followed by another, until the two had been seeing each other for several months and their love and affection was public knowledge. Professor Snape, now simply Mr Snape, or just Severus to Hermione, had almost immediately noticed how the formerly irritating know-it-all had become a lovely young woman, a full summer of gentle warmth and forgiveness where Lily's heart had been cold as a cruel winter, and when Harry Potter married Ginevra Weasley, Hermione Granger was carrying Snape's ring and the two were planning a small and modest wedding of their own, held for just a few closest to them.

After his release Ronald Weasley had found himself another victim, one who was weaker than Hermione. Lavender Brown had lost both her parents in the war, and her beauty had been ravaged in Fenrir Greyback's vicious attack. With the horrible scars decorating her face and body, with very little money, poor O.W.L.'s and no N.E.W.T.'s, she was grateful to have a place by the side of her former crush and boyfriend, who married her at Gretna Green without ceremony.

Having learned from Hermione's departure, Ronald began the ill treatment slowly with her: first the isolation, forbidding her from meeting her friends, spending what little money she had. Then cruel and callous words about her scars and the shape of her body: her arse too big, her tits too saggy, and perhaps a few stones of weight too much. The beatings began slowly: just a small smack on the arm when the food was late or didn't taste quite as good as Molly Weasley's, or to silence her annoying prattling. Then pulling her by the hair, slapping her face, and by the time he stripped his belt and pulled down her robes to whip her hide, Lavender was already in too deep, too weak, too frightened to reach out and too alone. When Lavender became pregnant, she hid it for a long time, but finally the bulge became apparent. Ron became possessive: the beatings lessened, for Ron wanted a son and an heir.

When a spell revealed Lavender was, in fact, carrying a daughter, Ron became vicious. Too late to abort the child legally, he imprisoned Lavender in their bedroom. She didnt have her wand these days: he took it for her own protection, Ron said, for she wasn't any good with it anyway. Ron tried to starve her, and finally in a drunken bout of rage he tried to beat the child out of her.

Lavender was eight months pregnant and her magic had been unstable: she'd never been any good with wandless magic, but the magic of her baby lashed out. Ron's large body slammed against the ceiling twice before it crumbled on the floor in a heap, and Lavender made a run for it. She Disapparated without a wand, completely blindly, and Splinched herself. She was already bleeding profusely, her arm broken, her head aching and blood soaked her underwear when she fell straight into the garden of Hermione and Severus Snape by the coast, falling nearly in Hermione's arms.

Hermione had been weeding the garden when Lavender Weasley, nee Brown, bleeding terribly, Apparated into the garden with a loud BANG! and fell over, crying in agony. Hermione rushed to her, calling for her husband Severus, began to heal her wounds: Severus rushed to her side from his laboratory and sent his raven Patronus to Harry Potter before he pushed Hermione aside and took over, chanting healing incantations while Hermione rushed to call for help by floo from St. Mungos. A healer arrived almost as soon as Harry did, followed by two other Aurors. By this time the healer had called from the help of another healer, for Lavender's baby was coming. Her womb had ruptured and Lavender was loosing blood. Conscious and in pain, she clutched Hermione's hand, moaning and crying through her pains, telling her of her life with Ronald Weasley, how she'd suffered and bled, and begging them to save and protect her baby. The Aurors, pale in the face, listened to her confession in the other room, their eyes as cold as steel and sharp as flint when they contemplated on what they'd do to Ronald Bilius Weasley.

The labour took too long: Lavender had lost too much blood, suffered too much, and by the time her daughter wailed her first cries, Laveder's eyes were empty and her soul had crossed the Veil, Severus Snape took the crying bundle from the healer as Hermione cried over the girl who'd sharer her dorm room for six years, a girl she'd never really liked at school, and who'd now died in her home and in their bed.

The Aurors arrested Ronald Weasley, and not even his mother defended him as he was sentenced to a life in Azkaban. His father and siblings had refused to attend his trial, and Harry Potter refused to look at his former mate. Ronald Weasley spent the rest of his life behind the bars and died a decade later.

Lavender's baby was adopted by Hermione and Severus Snape. Molly Weasley was too old to care for a newborn, still hurting from the loss of a son and the evil deeds of another, and though she'd be a doting grandmother, she could not be a mother. They named her Lilac Lavender Snape, giving her their own last name. Hermione, who became pregnant soon after, became "Mummy Hermione", while Severus was simply "Daddy". Mommy Lavender was beyond the veil, they taught her, but she'd loved Lilac so very much and would always, always be with her until the very end.

Lilac Snape, who was never, ever called Lily or Lils, but very much liked the name Lila, was all Lavender, and even if her blonde hair had a tiny tinge of red in it, nobody ever mentioned it. She had Lavender's eyes, her nose, her stature, and her nature: where the other Snape children loved their studies and were big swots like their biological parents, Lilac was a princess, who loved pretty dresses, frills, dreams and fairy-tales and, when she was older, parties and boys.

They buried Lavender Brown close to their cottage by the seaside: Lilac's godmother Parvati Patil told Hermione how much Lavender had always loved the sea. They carved her true last name to her headstone, unwilling to sully her last resting place with Weasley's name, and a sprig of lavender was carved on the stone. Hermione planted lavender on the grave, but somehow the sweet scent of lavender would linger in that place even during the harshest winter. Little Lilac Snape often visited there: the view was spectacular and the scent of herbs and flowers pleasing, and though she loved to spend time with her siblings Serena, Sarah and Sebastian Snape in the garden, where their adoring, occasionally stern but still loving and gentle daddy built them a treehouse and a swing and conjured pretty things with his wand and mummy taught them about magical creatures and plants and herbs, the grave by the sea was her own, special place as long as she lived.

And the invisible shade of Lavender Brown sat by Lilac until the wonderful scent of fresh bread bread and cooking food floated in the air and mummy Hermione called for all the children. Lavender stood up and smiled as she followed her daughter, her form unseen and her steps unheard as she continued watching over them all in the place where lavender bloomed.


End file.
